Carnival Gone Bad

I know I said that I'd done my last post from Europe, but this, I could not resist! To all my American Fork locals who think the Steel Days carnival is a nightmare, and to Cortney, who witnessed the most frightening circus with me at the McKay Events Center (where the same three circus performers performed in the WHOLE show, the women wore thong leotards, and the equipment nearly killed the spectators when it crashed to the ground), you haven't seen ANYTHING yet.

Let me just start by saying that Simon and Rostya's flat has an amazing view of Prague in all directions. They have a park on one side of them and the view from the flat is beautiful because it's so green. In the middle of the park, there is what Simon, Rostya, and George called the "fairgrounds." You can see the roller coaster and the farris wheel sticking out from the trees from the flat and you can hear the music until about 1:00 am...sounds like a happening place where there is a party going on all day and all night.

WRONG.

The kids wanted to go so we set off on a beautiful ten minute walk through the park. We got to what looked like an abandoned Expo Center and could NOT figure out how to get to the "fairgrounds." There was a cafe with a lady sweeping off the outside patio and she had NO customers. This place was so empty, she looked so lonely.

So, we continued to wander around, looking for this carnival/fairground. All along we could hear the music but by this point, the fun carnival music was sounding a bit "horror film" ish. The below picture is us searching...do you see the ferris wheel?
Found it. OH MY GOSH! I'm not kidding, I have NEVER experienced anything so funny in my entire life. George and I were laughing so hard, it was hysterical. This place was an over-grown, trashy, old, and incredibly questionable fair. There was a total of about eight rides and each one had it's own ticket booth. The workers were M.I.A most of the time...check out this ride...
And if they weren't M.I.A., they were SLEEPING! I am laughing OUT LOUD as I sit here posting this. WHAT? We walked up on this roller coaster and I asked George if he was sure these rides were safe and if he was sure we should be riding it. That's when we saw this man taking a nap instead of controlling the roller coaster. Of course he was napping, there was only one other family at the fair besides us. Yep, you read right, ELEVEN people at the fair and SEVEN of them were part of our group. LOL.
He finally woke up and we rode the roller coaster. It was fun but to be honest, I'm thrilled we made it out alive.
This is actually sad. This is the home of one of the families who run the carnival. This mobile home in right across from the bumper cars...right in the middle of the park. This family had two little boys that just rode their bikes around the park all day...I wanted to take them home with me. But I didn't.
Yep, this too was part of the beautiful park. So random.
Mitchell's first carnival ride. It never would have happened in the states, no way. I asked if he was too little and the guy looked at me like I was crazy? What kind of a question is that? You're NEVER too little for a carnival ride at this carnival. Scary.
Check out the man running this ride. Yep, the one without a shirt.
Ticket booth.
Concessions. So different. Gingerbread cookies. BIG gingerbread cookies...
and squishy, fruity, looking things. No cotton candy here my friends.
Another residence.
This is the best. A Beverly Hills 90210 trailer. Awesome. And one last detail, we had to pay to use the bathroom. Not that unusual in Europe, but the lady handed me a roll of T.P. when I went in because they didn't have it in the stalls. She sat out front of the bathroom with a little card table, taking money and handing out toilet paper. Classic. An experience I'll be laughing about until the day I die.